Profits at Glen Electric rise to £33.6m

PROFIT after tax at Glen Electric, the Northern Ireland division of Glen Dimplex which is estimated to represent more than one-third of the company’s overall business, increased by more than 50 per cent to £33.6 million (€38.5 million) in the year ended 31 March 2009.

Pre-tax profit stood at £58.8 million up from £36.6 million for the same period in 2008 according to recently-filed accounts.

Glen Electric, whose main business is the sale of heating, cooking and other domestic appliances, is one of the largest Irish firms within the electrical heating and appliance sector to reveal its annual figures.

Its parent company, Glen Dimplex, has unlimited status and is not required to file public accounts.

The accounts for Glen Electric show that turnover at the Co Down-based company amounted to £880.7 million up from £805.8 million a year earlier. Eighty-three per cent of this turnover related to sales in Europe.

US sales accounted for 9 per cent of overall turnover, while the remaining 8 per cent came from sales in the rest of the world.

The company, which paid no dividend in 2008, distributed dividends of £11.6 million during the 2009 fiscal year.

Some £811,000 was paid in directors’ emoluments for management services according to the accounts, up from £639,000 the previous year. These included a £456,000 payment to the highest-paid director, a 25 per cent jump from the 2008 figure of £365,000.

The company’s balance sheet shows that it had net assets of £244.4 million on March 31st, 2009, up from £211.4 million a year earlier. Shareholders’ funds on March 31st, 2009, amounted to £209.4 million, up from £182 million in 2008.

The company’s workforce contracted by 4 per cent in 2009, from 5,771 in 2008 to 5,525 in the year to the end of March 2009. However, total remuneration increased from £171,342 to £190,721 over the same period.

More than 60 per cent of the workforce was employed in production, 24 per cent in selling and distribution and the remainder in administration and research and development.

Glen Electric said that among the risks facing the business was shorter product lifespans due to greater demand by consumers for a greater range of functions, exchange rate fluctuation and changing retail patterns, which meant products were sold through a smaller number of retailers.

Glen Dimplex is one of the world’s largest electrical heating businesses, and one of the largest privately owned companies in Ireland.

Founded by businessman Martin Naughton in 1973, he became the sole shareholder of the business in 2004 when he bought Lochlann Quinn’s 26 per cent shareholding in the company.